CONVENTION REPORT: MomoCon 2015 (Atlanta, GA)

Hi! I’m Jade and I draw stuff!
I travel all over the southeastern United States selling my original graphic novel series, prints, and other art at conventions. I recently attended MomoCon in Atlanta, Georgia and am excited to share my artist experience with you.

Please keep in mind that this review is from an artist’s perspective. I don’t get the luxury of attending many of the main events, I don’t cosplay anymore, and I rarely get to see anything other than the inside of the exhibit hall. My interactions with a convention when I exhibit are different than the interactions I have when I attend conventions as an attendee. So, while there are some amazing events out there that I love to attend as an attendee, some aren’t really good for me as an artist. And, sometimes, there are events I wouldn’t want to attend, but I have a great time exhibiting! I hope this unique perspective of a convention is interesting and gives you a little insight into the world of exhibiting at conventions.

SO LET’S GET TO IT! (click the link below to read the full report!)

MomoCon on the HorizonI wanted to do MomoCon for years. I was always hearing about it from other artists and attendees, but I was scared to commit to it because it was typically an anime only convention and travel to Atlanta isn’t a cheap affair for me.

The MomoCon Artist Alley tables were $125 (+tax) for 2015. Given that the show is in its 11th year, located in a major city, is providing artists a space in the dealers room that’s closed nightly, and is a four-day event, I found the price very reasonable. (indeed, cheaper than most cons half the size)

To make back my booth and travel expenses for out of town shows, I usually need 5,000-15,000attendees with a nice cross-mix of anime, gaming, and comic book fans in attendance. The farther the convention, the more sales I have to make to cover my costs. Atlanta is about 5.5 hours from where I live in Northeast Florida and the convention now has a large anime and video game presence , recently expanded into comic books, and had about 15,000 – 20,000 attendees in 2014 so I felt comfortable booking it. The price of the table was fair for the amount of traffic I would probably see at my booth.

Atlanta is still a relatively new market for me. I exhibited at Anime Weekend Atlanta back in 2013 but hadn’t returned to the city since. I was able to do YamaCon in Tennessee which had some crossover with MomoCon and Anime Weekend Atlanta. I also did Nerdacon in Columbus, Georgia which had minimal crossover to MomoCon.

Their application process was easy. The information was available online in December or January for their May show and, once the form was online, the site was capable of handling the traffic. The application was a simple online form with the promise of hearing back by a specific date, which I did.

For 2015, MomoCon was trying something new: they introduced a Comics Alley in addition to the usual Artist Alley. In my experience, selling in the ‘Comic Book Only’ area never ends well for me. I don’t think my hybrid art style and anime style prints appeal to most comic book fans who are interested in Deadpool, The Avengers, or even more obscure indie comic book titles. So, I asked not to be placed there.

To my surprise, I was accepted! I was very excited. Only, there was one problem. I was approved for the Comics Alley only. The convention staff asked if I would be willing to be there because the Artist Alley was already full. Because I was determined to do MomoCon either way, I said that was fine, BUT – if space opens up in the Artist Alley, I wanted in! A week or so later, a space came available and I was moved into the Artist Alley. I couldn’t have been happier.

Through this process, the convention staff communicated with me regularly. I paid by the end of February, found a low priced hotel in the outskirts of Atlanta (with free breakfast and a fridge!), researched parking costs, and was all set for MomoCon 2015!

Because I knew MomoCon was primarily an anime and gaming convention, I didn’t want to bank on my books to make back my booth, lodging, and travel expenses which were about $450. For a four-day convention that’s 5.5 hours away from home, this is a very reasonable expense. MegaCon usually runs me about that much and is only three days and much closer to home. Tampa Bay Comic Con ran me about that much too. Although, both of those conventions have a much larger audience which means more traffic which translates to more sales and a higher probability that I will make new fans, meet more people, and have higher engagement.

But the big question still remained: would I be able to sell my original book series at MomoCon? Since this was a big question for me, I focused heavily on getting new prints ready instead of pushing more original content.

Prior to applying for Artist Alley, I also applied for a panel. I host a “How to make your own indie comic“ panel at many conventions and have had 20 – 200 participants at each show, depending on the size of the con. My panel was approved in January but, at the time, I was still waiting to hear back from the Artist Alley. The panel coordinator was kind enough to reserve my panel a spot until I heard back, since I wouldn’t be able to participate if I wasn’t in The Alley. This was much appreciated.

Unfortunately, preparing for my panel was a little irritating. The times were changed very late in the game (it happens) and the panel coordinator took a really long time to reply to communications. After not hearing back to several emails and the convention closing in, I went to Facebook to get answers. One of the top coordinators saw my post, replied timely and courteously saying that someone would get in touch with me within 24 hours and that she was sorry it had taken so long, and then I got an email from the coordinator, my panel was approved, and we were all set! Though it took a while to get a reply, the professionalism with which my questions were handled when I had to resort to social media for an answer was greatly appreciated. Instead of just ignoring the questions, they took the time to comment immediately and then follow-through. This is always a good sign.

One thing I really like about MomoCon’s panels is that they create an official MomoCon Facebook Event Page for your panel with a MomoCon banner on it. This drives traffic to the event pages and gives you the ability to better market your panel. I think this is an amazing system and, for the quantity of panels that they have, I’m surprised they were able to manage it! This was a really impressive and well managed marketing effort on behalf of the convention and I hope they continue doing it.

I hammered out about seven new prints for MomoCon and printed what I thought would be enough to get me through the convention. Sadly, I made the mistake of not ordering enough paper so I ended up having paper shipped to some friends in Atlanta in case I ran out of prints on Saturday (that happened several times).

Prior to the show, vendors received instructions from the convention center’s decorator offering electricity, more chairs, pipe and drape, additional tables, etc. for a price. Vendors also received shipping instructions for sending merchandise directly to the convention. MomoCon’s electricity for artists was a little steep for me and I didn’t really have a need, so I opted out. But it was nice to have the option.

MomoCon LocationI didn’t know what to expect with MomoCon’s new location, the World Congress Center in Atlanta, Georgia. It was new to MomoCon, new to artists and exhibitors, and new to attendees.

It was awesome!

The World Congress Center was beautiful with lots of natural lighting through huge slanted skylights stretching from the ground floor to the ceiling. The escalators were adjusted throughout the convention to better manage traffic flow. The exhibit hall was spacious and, for the most part, offered an easy load-in experience. More on that in a second.

The bathrooms felt small, but then I noticed that they were convertible. By opening doors and panels inside the bathrooms, they could turn them into all women’s or all men’s. It was impressive.

I thought the exhibit hall was a bit dim in some areas once the convention started. Maybe it’s because some booths towered so high that they actually cast huge shadows on others, but there were definitely some darker zones of the convention.

I loved the outside courtyard where attendees were encouraged to decorate the sidewalks with chalk drawings. On Saturday, it was packed with cosplayers.

Unfortunately, the World Congress Center is located in downtown Atlanta. As with other downtown conventions, that means parking fees, heavy traffic, and confusing streets. Atlanta is a horrible city to navigate via car. I hate driving there more than I hate driving in Tampa. It’s about as bad as driving in Miami for me. The GPS on my phone didn’t work in downtown Atlanta so I ended up going in circles until I found my way back to I-75 each night. Eventually, I got better at navigating, but I’m sure I’ll forget how to get around next time I’m at MomoCon.

Parking fees were what you’d expect. Some garages were charging $10-$15. You could park at the CNN Center which was two blocks from the convention for about $7-$8 daily if you purchased parking in advance, which many people did. I parked at the Georgia Aquarium on Thursday – Saturday and then at a garage adjacent to the CNN Center offering early bird parking rates of $5 for guests prior to 8:30 a.m. Next time, I’m going to see if that early bird rate is a thing on Thursday – Saturday! I paid $10 per day for parking at the Aquarium. Thankfully, I was able to plan for this expense because MomoCon was great about informing attendees, artists, and exhibitors about the parking situation. It’s incredibly frustrating when conventions don’t provide this information and then you get there and are greeted with extra, unexpected costs. I was thankful that MomoCon made this information available on multiple pages of their website and continuously posted about it on their social media sites. They even commented readily with links and other valuable information to Facebook posts on both their page and community group pages.

Many attendees used M.A.R.T.A. – the local transit system to get to and from the convention. I can’t speak to how well that went because I didn’t partake in it, but I think this is why the parking fees didn’t impact my sales at the con.

Driving up to the convention, banners on light posts featuring MomoCon’s pictures and branding welcomed us to downtown Atlanta. When we pulled up to the convention loop, Momocon banners and signs made it very clear where we needed to go.

MomoCon Load-InPrior to arriving at MomoCon, we received emails from the Artist Alley Coordinator providing load-in instructions. Basically, just follow the signs. I’ve heard that before so I was skeptical. But, given all the positive things I had heard about MomoCon, my hopes were high. – I was not disappointed.

As we (I’m now saying “we” because my husband joined me at this convention and it feels weird to say “I” now) followed signs to the loading bay, we were greeted with something we had never seen at another convention: a convention specific sign directing us to the load-in bay. Literally: “Momo-Con Loading Bay” with an arrow. Even the 2015 branding was on the sign. This con looked legit! Excited, I told my husband “that’s how you do it!” Even after we rounded another corner, there was another sign at a fork, directing us the right way, deep into the underbelly of the convention center. At the next fork, another sign, a security station where we were greeted by polite security, given a pass, and then shown to the spiffiest load-in zone I’ve ever seen.

At the bottom of the ramp, just after the security post, was a guy on an orange buggy who asked us to follow him past rows of trucks at docking bays, past some carts, and up a ramp right into the convention center! We parked in a spacious, empty hall adjacent to Artist Alley. –– I was floored.

Never before had I received this easy of a load-in. No heat. No walk. No rain. No rocky road with tons of pot holes. No dirt parking. Nice people. Directions. Signs. Smooth concrete all the way to my booth.

What sort of bizarre world was this?! That’s when I started thinking about all the conventions I’ve done in Florida. I thought about all the conventions that I think are amazing and I started wondering if the rumors are true: are Florida cons just bad? It’s crossed my mind a few times because I always hear about how amazing cons in Atlanta and, well, outside of Florida are. Anime Weekend Atlanta was pretty exceptional and MomoCon was already knocking my socks off. It only got better.

Though we couldn’t find the Artist Alley check-in, we did find a staff table up at the front, right by the restrooms. It’s as if they knew everyone would head to the bathroom after their drive and then start looking for information. What a logical place for check-in! This was the first time we interacted with convention staff and not the convention center employees. They were nice too!

The Artist Alley Coordinator was running late. This disappointed me, but we were told to just start setting up and then find her in an hour or so. We found her later at an impromptu booth and quickly checked in. It was easy. Even the impromptu booth had its own sign letting us know it was the Artist Alley Staff table. This booth moved around throughout the weekend, but was always in a visible area and always labeled.

It didn’t take long to find my table: it was labeled and in a great spot right near the main aisle that divided the artists from exhibitors.

Set-up was cake. I received a booth the size of what I was promised and MomoCon even placed me next to my friends, as requested. My husband and I were able to walk around a bit after setting up on Thursday morning. We looked at the MomoCon Gaming Experience area which was actually larger than the exhibit hall and began drooling over all the amazing booths, tournaments, demonstrations, and things that we could have done if we had attended instead of exhibiting. We hurried to lunch and then made it back just in time for the show to start after parking at the Aquarium and walking about 8 blocks uphill to the con. We needed the exercise.

Four Intense Days at MomoCon 2015!Thursday was busier than I expected. It was the first time MomoCon went to a four-day format so I was unsure if Thursday would be alright. In my experience with Florida Supercon, which is the only other four-day convention I’ve done as an artist, I didn’t expect to have high traffic, make sales, or be entertained. I expected to be bored.

The convention opened at 2:00 p.m. on Thursday and many of the artists and Comic Book artists were not there. Many Comic Book artists never even showed up, from what I could tell. I was thankful I wasn’t in that area of the convention.

Within the first hour, I had already made more than I did at Supercon 2014 on Thursday. That’s not saying much, but it’s saying something. To my surprise, I sold one of my original books. There’s no better way to start a con than selling something you’ve poured your heart and soul into! — MomoCon was off to a great start.

We left the convention a bit before closing on Thursday because we were worried that we made a mistake parking in the Aquarium’s parking garage. Concerned that the lot wouldn’t let us leave after a certain time, we opted to be proactive and leave early. Sales were slow on Thursday, but the foot traffic was great. Most of the people we saw had 4-day badges, but we didn’t see them over and over again. The traffic was fresh throughout the whole weekend. I had a few repeat visitors and saw a couple cosplays more than once, but it wasn’t anything out of the ordinary. There were clearly a lot of people at the con, even though the aisles looked a little barren in places.

Speaking of barren, the Comic Alley looked bleak for a while. I think this had a lot to do with all the empty tables. Because I’m not a part of the convention and I didn’t speak to any staff, I can’t specifically address why these booths were empty. In talking to a fellow artist who was in that area, he said that some left and some never showed. One or two artists relocated to empty tables in the Artist Alley area. Part of me felt relieved that I was in the Artist Alley. But I found myself feeling bad for the artists who were over there. While there was no distinction that it was “separate” from the Artist Alley, it was clearly not the same type of art and didn’t have the same amount of traffic. More on this in a bit.

Friday was great. I pulled what I consider Saturday sales numbers on a Friday. The Artist Alley spaces that were vacant on Thursday gradually filled throughout the day. I was thankful the other artists made it. Whenever there are a lot of vacant booths, it deters attendees from coming down the aisle. Sadly, the Comic Book area never fully filled out. We left the convention a little early again in order to attend the MomoCon Night at the Aquarium event. Unfortunately, Pro Jared’s panel was at the same time. We were so disappointed that we couldn’t attend it. I wish MomoCon didn’t put major events at the same time as other major events that we’ve already paid to attend.

MomoCon’s Night at The Aquarium is a must attend event – especially if you’re a cosplayer or photographer. There are countless unique photo opportunities in all of the underwater tunnels and rooms. It was, in short, a breath-taking event full of love. It was worth the $55 for me and my husband to attend. If you plan to go next year, make sure you buy your tickets online to save money and eat before you get to the Aquarium. The food there is good, but expensive! Don’t forget to charge your cameras too!

The Aquarium event was the only part of the convention my husband and I were able to experience outside of the exhibit hall. It was busy on Saturday. Insanely busy.

My panel on Saturday morning had about 65 people in attendance. Honestly, I expected like five or six people to come considering it was at 9:30 a.m. on Saturday. I’m not a morning person so I’m always surprised when people are so willing to roll out of bed for a discussion on making art. The participants and I had a great time during the panel. They asked a lot of great questions and most stopped by my booth afterwards to chat. It was a lot of fun and one of the best panels I’ve ever hosted.

Sunday was slow and boring, for me anyways. I made a few sales, had the chance to talk at length with some convention coordinators, and was able to finish up commissions early in the morning. Normally, Sundays are crazy for me but not this time. I had reprinted several prints on Friday and Saturday and most were sold out by noon on Sunday. We did a quick check of my book inventory and found that it was dangerously low. Given that I would be a guest at Daytona Beach Comic Con on Jun 7, 2015 which was a week away, I couldn’t risk selling anymore books. I came with two boxes and left with one-fourth of my inventory.

Around 2:00 p.m. (about 3 hours before the convention closed), we decided to breakdown, given my inventory and the long drive home. We decided to prepare for load-out and enjoy the rest of the convention together, even though there wasn’t much time left. My husband and I had a rare opportunity to walk around the convention together. We shopped like crazy! We played some indie games in the exhibit hall and in the gaming area, and took some pictures. I had a great time. It was a great way to end the weekend, strolling a still packed exhibit hall with my husband, getting a long sought after Durararawall scroll, and negotiating last minute deals with vendors on retro games, Love Live Figures, Kawaii Plushies, and hair clips from Tasty Peach Studios.

MomoCon Load-OutThis part of the convention was less impressive than load-in, but wasn’t terrible. Instead of driving to the awesome room at 5:00 p.m., we were routed to a side parking lot where there clearly wasn’t enough room for all the vendors. I was on the verge of freaking out. Then they opened the loading bay on the side of the hall. OK. That’s a little better. We still didn’t want to deal with traffic and logistics of getting out of the hall (which was basically the gaming area as it slowly vacated). So, we just pushed our cart up the small incline to the car, loaded up the cart in a few minutes and said farewell to MomoCon.

The Sights, Sounds, and Experience of MomoConAside from the Artist Alley, I did get to see a good portion of the exhibit hall. Wow! Crunchyroll was there, live streaming on the CrunchyCam. As a Premium Subscriber, I was able to log-in and get a special promotional poster of Sound Euphonium which I immediately showed off to anyone watching the CrunchyCam on Crunchyroll on Friday. I went back to say hi again on Saturday after a bathroom break too! They were also giving away Crunchyroll Lanyards to replace the generic black ones provided by MomoCon. I’m a big fan of Crunchyroll and everything they’ve done for legal streaming and anime distribution in the U.S. so I love when I get to see them at conventions, which is very rare for me.

The FUNimation booth was there as well and I couldn’t have been happier! It was the first time I’ve gotten to peruse their booth and interact face-to-face with some of their marketing and PR staff. It was definitely one of the highlights of my weekend. Another nice thing about having FUNimation at a convention is the dealers room will get purged of any bootleg FUNimation property products. I love this! It guarantees that I’m going to get legit products instead of getting ripped off. One of their staffers took the time to show me the difference between a bootleg tag with FUNimation written on it and a legit one. The more you know!

The exhibit booths featuring new video and table top games were downright impressive. I rarely see displays like these at Florida Conventions and I was so thankful that I had the opportunity to play some awesome new games, even if it was right before the con closed. I hope that more conventions in the southeast are able to expand into gaming the way MomoCon has so that I can have more experiences like this. While I don’t think that this reflects on MomoConapproaching interesting vendors (that may or may not have been the case), I think it speaks to MomoCon’s ability to draw a crowd and have enough gaming for these types of vendors and promoters to purchase exhibit spaces.

MomoConwas loud and a little on the hot side. I had a slight headache most of the convention because of a neighboring booth playing loud music. Why does this keep happening? We asked the booth’s representatives to turn the music down and they did, a little. But it seemed to get louder during some songs, probably because the volume of each track was inconsistent. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: I shouldn’t have to scream at the top of my lungs to talk to people who are standing 2 feet from me at my booth. Eventually, we talked to con staff and the music was much quieter on Sunday. No headache then either.

Then there’s the gaming hall and what a gaming hall it was! MomoCon had everything covered: official sponsors, LARP, TableTop gaming, RPGs, Indie Gaming booths where you could try out a variety new games and buy them, tournaments, metal dance pads, massive charging stations, and even a laser tag area. Yes. I said laser tag. I’ve never seen anything like it. Maybe if you attend PAX, PAX East, or GenCon you’re used to this sort of thing. But, I have never seen a room like this in Florida. Never. Granted, I never get the opportunity to find these rooms when I’m at Florida conventions and it’s not like those rooms are ever easily accessible to me as an artist. I’m not going to roam around a con trying to find a game room that I can’t even enjoy because I’m tied to my booth. Most of the time, they are divided into smaller areas, keeping TableTop far from video gaming. But, at MomoCon, it was one big gaming community! It was a celebration of all things gaming and the gigantic MomoCon sign reading “MomoCon Gaming Experience” couldn’t have been more correct. It was the epitome of what it means to have an “Experience”. Well played, MomoCon. Well played.

I only entered one panel room and it was mine at 9:30 a.m. Everything worked, bottled water was waiting for me, and the microphones were great. I had a nice big stage and even attendees could get refreshments from the back of the room. The screen was a little small and off to the side, but we managed. If it were a smaller room, I think the screen would have been considered large, to be honest! I think it only felt small because of the size of the room.

The Anime Cosplay presence was unrivaled by any other convention I’ve attended. While I’ve seen some amazing cosplays at Metrocon, MomoCon’s cosplayers were in another category. Megacon and Supercon have some outstanding sci-fi and comic book cosplayers, but I’ve never seen this caliber for anime. Some of them were breathtaking. I’m still seeing amazing pictures trickling in on social media pages of cosplayers I never even saw all weekend.

MomoCon does communication right: before and during the convention. During the convention, there were signs everywhere! All the panel rooms had schedules that were neatly printed and easy to read from afar. There were maps located throughout the convention hall. There were huge banners hanging from the ceiling and even a gigantic MomoCon archway welcoming you to the con. There were floor pop-up banners, easel signs directing traffic to artists, signs labeling different regions of the convention, and signs directing you to loading zones, events, the hotel, and pretty much anything else you wanted to do at the convention. There were even signs for traffic direction and security. It was so easy to find everything and know exactly what was happening, when it was happening, and where. The convention brochure further exemplified the convention’s great communication with clear instructions about the convention, what would and would not be tolerated, and color coded programming.

MomoCon was great, but…No event is perfect, right? MomoCon was pretty close, for me at least. But there were some things that I thought needed improvement, like with all events.

My primary concern about the convention was the Comic Alley area. MomoCon tried something new: comic books. I don’t think it went over well because I didn’t see the comic book crowd. Maybe it’s because the hardcore comic book fans never made it to my aisle. Maybe there were other reasons. I don’t know why, but I felt like the comic book community wasn’t really there. MomoCon had a few comic book vendors (the ones with the white boxes) and several guests. There was specific event programming for comic book fans and even separate pages on their website highlighting those events, making it easy to find information about comic books prior to the show. Event the art style for the promotional characters had been modified to lean toward the comic book crowd, even if it was just slightly.

The fact that the Comic Alley area was dead most of the times that I was able to look over there tells me it had lower traffic than other areas of the convention. But here’s what’s interesting about that: the Comic Alley was placed in an area with high visibility right between the exhibit hall and the gaming area. If you wanted to walk from the exhibits to the gaming side of the convention (which was HUGE!), you had to walk past the comic book artists. If you wanted to get autographs, you had to walk past a small part of the Artist Alley.

Compared to the Artist Alley, the Comic Book Alley was small, taking up about only two rows compared to the six or so rows of Artist Alley. One of my artist friends was over there and he did well. I was relieved to hear that on Sunday because I was really worried about that area even back when I booked MomoCon.

I’m hoping this is something that MomoCon will be able to either fix or gracefully abandon. It was clearly the weakest link of the convention and rightfully so: it was new. With all new things comes a learning curve and, given the caliber of MomoCon’s gaming area, with the right leadership and guidance, I think that, if there was any predominantly Anime convention that could quickly market and appeal to the comic book community, MomoCon could. I think there’s going to be a lot of trial and error to figure out what will appeal the most to this community. I’m interested to see if MomoCon will book big Comic Book guests as well as providing indie creators the opportunity to sell in order to get the ball rolling. If their gaming experience is any indication of what they are capable of providing and if the comic book area could become even remotely similar to what MomoCon did with gaming, I think they’ll be just fine and could provide comic book fans something memorable, new, and exciting.

Maybe more than that, I’m hoping that the convention survives 2016. The next MomoCon will be held on Memorial Day Weekend: the same weekend as Animazement in North Carolina and Megacon in Orlando. As much as I love MomoCon, I can’t cancel my Megacon booking to attend the 2016 show.

Another complaint that I have is the lack of a floor plan for Artist Alley and the Exhibit Hall. This is something that I am frequently bothered by when I participate in conventions. At least MomoCon listed their Artists and Exhibitors on their website (which is more than I can say for some conventions), but to not publicize a floor plan is very frustrating. I waited patiently for it, assuming that it would eventually arrive, but it never did. Even after receiving an email on the Tuesday prior to the convention which offered a floor plan and replying to it, I never did receive a response. I hope this is something they fix in the future. I use floor plans to promote my location at a convention and to plan for my experience. Not providing one is unprofessional and leaves artists and exhibitors in the dark. If a floor plan doesn’t exist, how does a convention know how many spaces to sell in the first place? It’s something that isn’t hard to do and should be one of the first things a convention prepares. Given how organized MomoCon was, I’m genuinely surprised that this slipped through the cracks – especially because the Gaming Experience Floor Plan was on the website three months prior to the convention.

Aside from that, I have no other major concerns about the convention. I’ve seen comments about Cosplayers being harassed and homeless people in downtown Atlanta, but I didn’t personally experience any of those things, so I can’t comment on it. What I can say is that MomoCon staff seem to be responsive to concerns and will, more than likely, do their best to fix any issues that they can control. No event wants to have bad press or for people to have a bad time at their con. Since MomoCon has been around a while, they’ll probably handle it to the best of their abilities and find ways to publicly answer to any other concerns people have. Unfortunately, as conventions grow not only in size but in scope, there are going to be some bad apples that get in, regardless of what any convention does to prevent that.

The Bottom Line:MomoCon is a fantastic show, especially for gaming and anime fans. Comic book fans may have been a little disappointed this year and, if that’s the case, should voice their concerns privately with the convention. In my interactions with staff, they were courteous, respectful, and informative. They took the time to listen to feedback and did their best to direct traffic to the Artist Alley area. This convention excels at communication! I knew what was happening, I knew where to go, and I knew what to do once I got there. They made things so easy.

My interactions with the convention center employees were pleasant as well. They’re leaps and bounds better than what I’m used to seeing at the Tampa Bay Convention Center whenever I do a convention there.

From an artist’s perspective, it was one of the best shows I’ve ever done. I made back my booth and travel, breaking several other conventions’ records and ended up making great profit thanks to all of the people who came to my booth and supported me while I was there. For this to be a new market for me and to do so well, I was shocked. I thought that MomoCon was going to be a loss, especially because it was just starting to branch into comic books. I had great engagement at this convention as well. My panel was well attended and promoted by MomoCon which drove more people to it, even though it was so early in the morning.

The special events and areas were astounding. I’ve never attended an event like this. Again, it makes me wonder if this is what exists beyond Florida. I wonder if MomoCon just gave me a small taste of the greater convention world that I’ve yet to experience. I’m hoping that’s the case because I’m even more excited about doing other conventions that I’ve heard great things about over the many years I’ve been selling.

For me, MomoCon was worth the risk. It was a great four day show and I will definitely be back in 2017 if I’m able to get in again. I loved it and I think it’s one of the best conventions in the southeastern U.S. I hope that, if you aren’t coming to Megacon in 2016 that you go to MomoCon. I wish I could be there too!